Description

Esa-Pekka Salonen's YTA III for solo Cello.

This work was written for Anssi Karttunen, who gave the first performance at the Musiikin aika Festival, Viitasaari, Finland, on 23rd July 1987.

'I began to work on the YTA series in 1982. The first piece was for solo alto flute, the second for pianoand the third for cello. The title, ‘Yta’, is a Swedish word meaning ‘surface’. I wanted to write verydemanding virtuoso music, where the surface is extremely busy, but the formal process, partly hiddenbehind the frenetic stream of fast gestures, is considerably slower.I tried to imagine what happens to the famous moth that circles around a lamp in Skryabin’s Versla flamme, after the wings have finally touched the flame. A series of gestures is introduced in thebeginning. Each gesture undergoes an individual development, culminating in spasms before dyingaway. YTA III is a study of the death of an organism; the music is violent and ugly.' - Esa-Pekka Salonen